Fictionwise shutting down--books can be transferred to NOOK Library

[gobasso]

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gobasso wrote:

I clicked the submit button and received an error saying, "your email doesn't match our records." Anybody else encounter the same problem? Something tells me this isn't going to be a smooth transition.

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I kept trying and today the link was finally accepted. If you are having the same problem I initially had my advice is to keep trying.

[RHWright]

Link just worked for me. Don't know if it was just time or updating to a current CC in my ereader account yesterday. Still waiting for the email/insturctions on what to do next.

[mbuenzli]

I'm glad I'm not the only one. It has been 6 days and only 18 of over 500 titles in my Fictionwise library have transferred over to the B&N NOOK library. All are ones I have little interest in reading again, of course. When FIctionwise was acquired, I assumed at some point I'd lose online access to the titles purchased through them, when I heard they were being transitioned to NOOK I was excited because I'd be happy to have them in a more current format, so now I'm all disappointed again!

[TBK1]

I have over 800 book in my fictionwise library. About 50 transferred the first day. and NOTHING since then (Friday 11/16). No rhyme or reason to what transferred, but seem to be mostly older ones. I got the same line from customer suport about 24 hours, too. Obviously it is going to take a lot longer since a week has already gone by. Very discouraging.

[gstew]

After searching across various postings & articles across the web, NOONE has seen all of their Fictionwise/EReader items transferred.

As I see it, the situation is:

1. B&N is shutting down Fictionwise & EReader.

2. They have promised to transfer our bookshelves over except for what in practice looks to be a very

small percentage of items for most people.

3. Their processes to notify customers, allow them to opt-in, and convert/transfer their books are all broken.

4. They know this and have said they are fixing the problems.

5. We are seeing no results from their efforts and receiving no updates on what's going on.

How do we get B&N management's attention & get this corrected!!!!!

Thanks!

Greg

P.S. Here's my back-story...

I started ebooking with Peanut Press back in 1999 & now have 225 EReader & 690 Fictionwise estories/emags/ebooks on my bookshelves.

I got both an EReader and a Fictionwise notice email on 11/16. The Fictionwise notice came in the morning. I responded immediately, got a code, & submitted it to start the conversion. It looked as though it had stopped when I returned from lunch & saw the EReader notice. I responded to it also, got a code that was the duplicate of the Fictionwise one, and submitted it. The website said that the code had already been used.

I checked and saw that only 31 items had made it into my B&N bookshelf. I submitted customer service requests to B&N, EReader, and Fictionwise & then called the B&N Support number. They said there had been issues & it might take up to 24 hours.

I waited until midday 11/18, saw that no more books had converted, & saw a response from B&N support that said:

"Thank you for writing to us about the email which you received to transfer your eReader account books to your Nook.

If you have specific questions regarding the transfer of your eBooks to a NOOK® Library, we kindly request you to go through the FAQ's by clicking on the below link:

http://www.fictionwise.com/BN-Transition-FAQ.htm

If you need immediate assistance, we kindly request you to reach us through our toll-free number 855-654-9332. Our agents are available from Monday to Friday at 8AM-11PM ET, on Saturdays and Sundays we are available from 9AM to 11PM ET."

Basically, nothing, so I called called B&N Support again. They said that the Fictionwise techs were aware of the issue and that they'd be moving over the remainder of everyone's books during the next week.

11/23, I received an email back from Fictionwise support and another from EReader. Both said:

"Thank you for opting to transfer your eReader Bookshelf to a NOOK Library.

We are continuing the transfer process which is ongoing during the week of November 19, 2012. If you have more titles that are eligible for transfer, we will deliver those titles to your new NOOK Library. You do not need to do anything more in this process as any transferrable remaining titles will appear automatically in your NOOK Library."

I've searched for all of the authors I've purchased on the "no-transfer" list at B&N & saw 2 of my purchases there. I also saw 3 additional combos that contained books I'd purchased separately. I'm hoping the latter will be ok as the books are not listed separately.

I expect MANY more than 31 to be transferred.

[gobasso]

I have received no instructions since I was able to submit my email address. Luckily I have only a few books in my fictionwise account. They were all emobi files which I converted to epub and already have them in my NOOK ST. Unfortunately I had to pay for a converter so I figure I've paid twice for these books. It would be nice if B&N actually tranferred these books to my B&N account but if they don't I still have copies of the books on my hard drive. I'm afraid this is the future of "the book". Companies and technologies will change and the consumer will be forced to deal with it as best they can with only the spottiest of information to make their decisions.

[AlexJouJou]

Has anyone who clicked and opted in and got the message on the website that the access code would be provided the week of 11/19 received an access code?

That happened to me and I have not, to date, received any access code to begin the transfer process. On the off chance anything showed up I check my Nook account daily but nada there either (I'm pretty sure that requires the access code part to be done but you never know...)

I bought a NST so I'm hopeful that many titles will transfer -- eventually. I have them all backed up...but it sure would be nice to see them in a Nook library!

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

I have not received the promised follow-up email either.  This whole transfer process seems to be handled very sloppily.

[cgsmom]

I have not received the promised instruction email either. Hopefully B&N will get this process going more smoothly.

[RHWright]

Like many, was finally able to get the opt-in to work, but have yet to recieve email with further instructions.

[Robert-J-Sawyer]

I have separate Fictionwise.com and eReader.com accounts, both registered to the same email address with the same password.

I received the emaill from Fictionwise.com about the transfer procedure, and clicked the link.  HOWEVER, the email I received from eReader.com HAD NO SUCH LINK.  I'm reproducing the full text below.  I have 102 eReader-format books in my eReader.com account and would like them to also be transferred to my B&N Nook account.  

I also received a note on November 17 from Barnes & Noble saying "Thank you for opting to transfer your Fictionwise or eReader Bookshelf to a NOOK Library."  At that point, though, I had done no such thing.

Is this normal?  Have they automatically consolidated my eReader and Fictionwise accounts?  And did other people get the "Thank you for opting" letter before doing anything at their end?

Thanks!

FROM EREADER.COM:

Dear eReader.com Customer,

As you may know, in March of 2009, Fictionwise (comprised of several eBook retail websites, including Fictionwise.com, eReader.com and eBookwise.com) was acquired by Barnes & Noble.

eReader.com is in the process of winding down its operations. eReader.com will end sales on December 4, 2012 and you will not be able to access your eReader.com Bookshelf through the site after January 31, 2013.

If you haven't done so already, we recommend that you back up all files by January 31, 2013. You can learn more about downloading your eReader.com files here: http://www.ereader.com/BN-Transition-FAQ.htm.

If you have an eMagazine subscription with undelivered issues, we will reimburse you as they will no longer be valid after December 4, 2012. You will receive a separate communication regarding this matter.

For more information about the eReader.com wind down, including additional details on how this change in service will apply to eMagazine subscriptions and more, please visit our FAQ web page: http://www.ereader.com/BN-Transition-FAQ.htm

We greatly appreciate your support of eReader.com over the years. Together, we helped pioneer eBooks and eReading.

Thank you.


The eReader.com Team

===

FROM BARNES & NOBLE:

Dear Customer,


Thank you for opting to transfer your Fictionwise or eReader Bookshelf to a NOOK Library.

We are continuing the transfer process which is ongoing during the week of November 19, 2012. If you have more titles that are eligible for transfer, we will deliver those titles to your new NOOK Library. You do not need to do anything more in this process as any transferrable remaining titles will appear automatically in your NOOK Library.

Thank you for your patience and we look forward to serving you.

Sincerely, 


The NOOK Team

  ====

 ROBERT J. SAWYER, Science Fiction writer

 Author of Triggers and FlashForward

 http://sfwriter.com

[donc13]

I am so happy with the moderator's assistance...... NOT Can't you guys get your act together? Got email, used link, selected opt-in, hit submit Says my email doesn't match their records. Tried several different browsers, same email issue Called, was told to call different phone, that they couldn't transfer me Called new phone, they are aware of issue, I will get 2nd email in 24 to 48 hrs Waited 4 days, no email. Tried old link, seemed to work, told I will get email week of 19th No email Called again, cs rep assured me b&n techs were throughly testing new system to insure no repeat of email issues. Got 2nd opt in email, slightly different link in it. Go to link, selected opt-in, hit submit and got the wrong email message AGAIN Called cs number... They are having issues, are aware of them and it's been escalated to the highest levels Yea... Right. The above is NOT an example of a well thought out plan and competency on the programmer's part. I am not a happy customer.

[dafaolta]

I have twice clicked on the email link and gotten the message that they would be sending the message during the week of 11/19, irinic since both times were well past that date. I keep checking and I've gotten no email from them on any of the accounts I have used (before I got my iPod Touch I had a different email for my eReader account than for Fictionwise). Because I go back to Peanut Press on my Palm III, I'm used to keeping my ebooks on my desktop. I have the eReader App on my iPod, along with Stanza, Nook, Books On Board & Kindle, as well as iBooks and a PDF reader from way back.

Between Fictionwise & eReader, I have nearly 1000 ebooks. I'm already expecting that most of them won't transfer, based on the evidence here. I'm planning to download them in as many formats as I can, myself, and save them on my hard drive, as well as archiving them on a cd for safety sake. We'll see if B&N can redeem themselves, but based on their general attitude towards eReader & Fictionwise all along, I'm not holding my breath. I was so happy when B&N bought them because I figured they would use their sofware as the basis for the Nook, or that they would consolidate all three stores into one huge one. It's been a sad misadventure all the way around.

B&N are busily shooting themselves again. I don't understand the need for all this haste and I'm still wondering what genius decided to start this process the week of Black Friday. As though their Nook techs have nothing *else* to do this time of year?

[mbuenzli]

I've been pretty discouraged with my 3 crummy books that transferred out of my Fictionwise library of 500+ books after initiating the process on 11/16.

Finally, today (11/28), I checked my NOOK library and I've got 419 transferred! 

It's almost like getting a bunch of NEW books because I had pretty much written off my Fictionwise books. I didn't like the Android eReader app very well and I haven't had the time to de-DRM them and convert to another format. 

So, hold out hope if you haven't seen yours yet! I'm expecting to see a few more of mine turn up since it is a little weird that Tolkien's LOTR trilogy only transferred volume 2 so far.

[BrandieC]

@mbuenzli:

Congratulations!  I still haven't gotten more than the original half dozen transferred.

[AlexJouJou]

I still don't have an access code.

I agree that Black Friday week was def. NOT the time to do this! Frankly the holiday season in general was not the time. I'd of waited until January...in general terms 1 more month is no big and January (once you get passed the return phase of Xmas items) is generally not very busy for retail. 

Oh well. I'll wait for the access code and hope many of my books transfer!

[AlanNJ Inspired Bibliophile]

I have not received an access code either and I originally submitted the day I received the email from Fictionwise.

[bookitID]

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who didn't get an access code either. However, I'm saddened to discover that I'm not in the minority who still haven't gotten their books transferred yet. I'm really hopeful B&N will quicken the process soon.

[Tammke]

I had revieved a code before Thanksgiving and only saw 2 of my books from my Fictionwise library show up, however; last night I received another code and when I put that one in it appears that all of my Fictionwise and eReader.com books came over.  I had just over 80 books transfer and out of that only 2 of them won't download (says they are unavailable at this time).

I had actually received 2 notices from Barnes and Noble about the transfer, one in reference to the fictionwise library (which was the e-mail I received the first code from) and the second in reference to the eReader.com library, which I also responded to but had never received a code for.  I'm guessing the code I got last night was from the second notice.  For those of you who hadn't gotten a code yet, maybe they are just getting around to sending them out.

[RHWright]

After a flurry of emails with both B&N and Fictionwise support, finally got a response that made sense, even if it did not exactly make me happy:

"In the coming weeks you will receive a follow-up email with an access code [...]" [emphasis added]

So what was the fairly specific week of the 19th has been extended, basically, indefinitely. (sigh)